News

06/01/2017

It’s hard to avoid all those Tony Robbins, Tom Brady billboards. But who is this guy?

You’d have to drive around wearing a blindfold over your eyes not to notice them — the towering billboards that depict a screaming man in a microphone headset next to a cutout of New England Patriots star Tom Brady’s stubbly mug.

“TONY ROBBINS TOM BRADY LIVE,” the billboards shout.

There are so many of them, it seems, that even the most devout Brady fans are teetering on the line of annoyance and adoration.

“I love TB12 and our New England Patriots,” one person wrote on Facebook, with a photo showing three of the signs within eyeshot. “But enough with the Tony Robbins / Tom Brady Billboards please.”

So who exactly is this Robbins guy? And why is he sharing the stage on June 8 with the region’s most adored athlete? Perhaps more important, who are the people allegedly shelling out upwards of $3,000 just to be part of his extravaganza?

Robbins — quick fun-fact, he appeared in the Farrelly brothers’ 2001 film “Shallow Hal” — is a well-known motivational speaker and so-called life coach who takes his seminars to such extremes that at times attendees rake their feet through hot coals just to experience a personal breakthrough.

At one such “fire walk” event last year in Dallas, five people were taken to the hospital for burns, while dozens more were evaluated on-scene by medics after trudging across burning embers, according to the Washington Post. (No such coals will be at the Brady event, sorry).

This is a guy who thrives on quippy one-liners and poetic statements to inject passion into the groups he hopes to inspire. Allow us to offer a few examples of his signature speak, plucked from his Twitter account:

“A mind out of control will play interesting tricks on you. Directed, it’s your greatest friend,” Robbins recently wrote.

A banner at one of his recent events added, “Stop focusing on how stressed you are, and start focusing on how blessed you are.”

Robbins is also known for apparently bringing people with the most tough exteriors to tears.

In an interview with the Globe in 2016 about his documentary on Robbins, called “Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru,” director Joe Berlinger copped to crying during one of the motivational speaker’s more popular seminars held in Florida.

“At the first break on the first day, I didn’t walk, I ran to the exit,” Berlinger said. “On the second day ...Something lifted. I thought, maybe there’s something to this.”

As WEEI.com points out, Robbins has been referred to as the “CEO Whisperer,” and is often seen spending his time with the Hollywood elite.

According to a post on Robbins’ Facebook page, he will be “interviewing my dear friend Tom Brady aka the world’s greatest NFL quarterback in history.”

The event seems to feature a group of powerful people and how they have achieved a certain level of desirable success. The key ingredient to that success? An appetite for winning — and in Brady’s case, maybe some athletic prowess.

“Personal and professional success begins by taking action and all successful people share one powerful characteristic: hunger,” according to a rather overwrought list of event details. “The hunger to seek out knowledge through the most effective resources. Our speakers began their journey from the bottom of the mountain and now they want to share the top of the mountain with you by sharing their experience and knowledge.”

The “Ultimate Wealth” tour will hit other cities this summer, and include appearances by the likes of rapper Pitbull.

The Boston summit also includes appearances by other notable celebrities and athletes, like wide receiver Julian Edelman and reality star Bethenny Frankel, inventor of the “Skinnygirl Cocktails.”

And if ticket sales are to be believed on EventBrite.com, people are clamoring to be a part of the Robbins-Brady-Edelman-Frankel experience at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center next week.

The most expensive passes to get into the event — $2,995, which includes a meet-and-greet and photo opp with both Brady and Robbins — seem to have sold out.

The next most-expensive tickets go for $1,995, and include a Brady rendezvous sans Robbins, as well as other perks. The cheapest tickets to the event will plop attendees in an overflow room, and cost $99.